THE TWIN brother of Port Adelaide AFL star Jared Polec has told a court he was set upon, stomped and punched by the manager and staff of a popular Adelaide nightclub.

Andrew Dowdell

The AdvertiserJuly 30, 20146:43pm

THE TWIN brother of Port Adelaide AFL star Jared Polec has told a court he was set upon, stomped, kicked and punched by the manager and staff of a popular Adelaide nightclub.

Daniel Polec today told the District Court jury he was bashed by bouncers and staff from Red Square nightclub on Hindley St in the early hours of December 18, 2011.

Red Square manager Antony Tropeano, 34, and security staff Wayne Patrick Ngaia, 45, and Jack Apostolidis, 63, are all on trial after pleading not guilty to a charge of aggravated causing serious harm with intent.

Mr Polec, 21, said he was enjoying his night when he noticed his cousin involved in a verbal altercation with other men on the dance floor.

He said as he approached to help his cousin, he was grabbed from behind in a headlock then pushed the person to the ground before realising the man was a bouncer.

Mr Polec said he apologised and was then told by another bouncer to leave through a side door which went onto Rosina St.

“As soon as I swung open the doors that was it, I just got king hit ... it must have knocked me out clean because after that, yeah, I just remember waking up in the middle of the street,” Mr Polec said.

“I kind of like remember waking in a pool of blood and I looked to my left and I was like thanking God there’s cops here. Then I looked to my left and I see my cousin just bawling his eyes out.”

Mr Polec told the court he spent seven days in hospital and required surgery to repair two jaw fractures, and also suffered two nose fractures and severe swelling of his face and head.

The jury was shown police CCTV footage of the incident, which prosecutors allege shows Apostolidis stomping on Mr Polec’s head and Tropeano putting his knee into the victim’s head as others assaulted him.

Prosecutor Jeff Powell said witnesses would testify seeing Mr Polec being held down and attacked as he tried to get up and run away.

“(A witness) saw Mr Tropeano grab him, with the other guards, and force him back to the ground,” Mr Powell said.

“He also saw at one stage, Mr Tropeano put his knee onto Polec’s head and arms to hold him down.”

Mr Polec told the court his physical injuries hampered his bid to play SANFL football for the Port Magpies.

“After this happened I was back to square one, I was all the way out the back of the pack,” he said.

“I tried to continue my footy and keep playing but then I started getting leg cramps and all that kind of stuff so I went back to my local club, Seaton Ramblers.”

His twin brother, Jared, was drafted to Brisbane in 2010 and returned to play for Port Adelaide at the end of the 2013 season.

Tropeano’s lawyer Lindy Powell QC told the jury her client and staff were confronted with a “volatile” scene when a fight broke out in the nightclub.

“Management of the club was confronted with what, at 4.30am, was a very large crowd of young men, many of whom you might think by that hour of a Sunday morning were fuelled up with alcohol and behaving in an aggressive manner,” Ms Powell said.

She said as manager of the club, Tropeano would have been well aware police had been called and that the incident would be captured on police CCTV.